Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique of visualizing a posture.
Description of the Related Art
Leaning of a posture of a person standing normally with his face facing forward is one of indicators for determining the person's health condition. For example, a person suffering from cerebellar infraction might have disorder of the sense of equilibrium, and thus might not be able to stand straight and stagger. A person suffering from Parkinson's disease standing straight might gradually lean diagonally forward due to the person's stiff body muscles. A person who is not suffering from such diseases might have an unbalanced posture with the person's left and right shoulder heights different from each other or have a slouching posture which might cause pain in body parts such a neck, a hip, and the like, or adversely affect the function of autonomic nerves to impair the function of internal organs. As described above, whether a person is standing still is an indicator for determining his or her health condition.
For example, a person can check whether the person can stand straight by standing in front of a mirror and see the person in the mirror so that the person can visually check whether the person's body is leaning left or right. However, whether the person's body is leaning front or back cannot be clearly checked just by looking at the mirror. A person can see a side view instead of a frontal view of the person's body on a mirror by standing sideways against the mirror with the person's face facing the mirror. However, this posture, which is not “posture of a person normally standing with the person's face facing forward to a mirror”, does not allow the person to correctly estimate the person's health condition. Furthermore, a person standing this way cannot see whether the person is leaning left or right.
For example, a technique allowing a user facing forward to see the user's posture viewed from a position other than the front is discussed in Japanese Patent No. 4,654,905. In the technique discussed in Japanese Patent No. 4,654,905, the user is image-captured from a position other than the front and the captured image can be displayed from behind a half mirror positioned to face front to the user. When the user is image-captured from a side of the user with this technique, the captured image is displayed in front of the user. Thus, the user can check how much the user is leaning forward or backward with the user's eyes while facing forward. Here, a frontal posture of the user is displayed on the half mirror disposed at a position to face front to the user, and thus the user can also check how much the user is leaning left or right with the user's eyes.
In the technique discussed in Japanese Patent No. 4,654,905, an image capture unit needs to be positioned to be capable of capturing an image of the posture other than the frontal posture to be displayed to the user. The image capture unit is fixedly disposed, and thus an orientation of the posture to be displayed to the user cannot be freely changed. Therefore, an orientation of the standing user might need to be fixed to capture an image of the posture that allows a user to check whether the user is leaning forward, backward, leftward, and rightward.